Page 3 of The Earl Takes All
“Have you lost your mind?” Ashe bellowed.
“Lower your voice,” he ground out. He didn’t need the servants to overhear.
“Do you truly believe that you can fool Julia into believing you’re Albert?”
He’d been doing it for a little over a week already. Had convinced everyone: the servants, the vicar, the few mourners, Julia. But not these two, and that was a problem. He spun around. “Albert gave me no choice if I am to honor his request.”
“Surely she is far enough along now that she is past the point of a possible miscarriage,” Locke said, standing shoulder-to-shoulder beside Ashe, as though together they would be better able to convince him of his foolhardiness, as though he wasn’t already perfectly aware of it.
Edward glowered at him. “Can you promise me that? Can you guarantee it? You know how much she loves him, how much he loved her. If she learns that he was the one killed, will she not crumble? Will she not make herself ill with grief?”
In answer, with a heavy sigh, Locke moved off to the sideboard, grabbed the decanter, and poured himself more scotch. Although Edward knew he’d made his point, he took little satisfaction in it.
“Do you have any idea what this deception will do to Julia, how she will feel when she learns the truth?” Ashe asked.
It was all he’d thought about as he trudged through the jungle with his brother’s body in tow, as he sailed across the blue waters toward England, as he rode in the wagon that transported the wooden box that held the Earl of Greyling. “She’ll think worse of me than she already does. I expect she’ll attack me with the handiest object that can inflict a mortal wound. And she’ll be devastated, her heart will be crushed, and her life will go dark.”
“Which is the very reason you must tell her now before you take this deception any further.”
“No.”
“Then I bloody well will,” Ashe said, heading for the door.
Darting in front of him just as he reached for the latch, Edward cut him off. “Touch that door and I’ll lay you flat.”
Ashe glared at him. “I refuse to let you do this.”
“You may be of the higher rank and older, but this matter does not concern you.”
Shaking his head, Ashe squared his jaw. “It bloody well does concern us. Locke, inform him that he’s a fool and cannot do this.”
“Unfortunately, I agree with him.”
Clearly stunned, Ashe twisted around. The man whom he’d mistakenly believed to be his ally sat with one hip perched on the edge of the desk, glass of scotch in hand. “You don’t think this is a bad idea?”
“I’m convinced it’s the worst idea an Englishman has had since one decided to go crusading. But he’s correct. It’s not our business, and we don’t have a say in the matter.”
“You might not care about Julia, but I do.”
“But if Edward has the right of it and telling her causes her to lose the babe, the last gift Albert will ever bestow upon her, how will you feel then?”
Ashe’s shoulders slumping slightly, he stepped back. “I loved Albert like a brother.”
“But like a brother is not the same as being a brother,” Locke said. “Not to mention neither of us was there when Albert drew his last. We didn’t hear his final words nor did we witness the desperation that might have laced them.”
Be me,he’d gasped.Be me.Edward had never realized how much power two small words, four letters, could hold.
“Do you have to always be so bloody logical?” Ashe asked.
Locke raised his glass. “I wouldn’t complain if I were you. My being logical contributed to you gaining your wife.”
Shaking his head, Ashe turned his attention back to Edward. “Have you truly thought this through? How far along is she? Somewhere between seven and eight months? You’re looking at several weeks of pretending to love Julia when the two of you have never gotten along, when all of London knows you can hardly stand to be in the same room with her,” he said, getting to the crux of what he surely believed was the challenge Edward had set for himself.
If only it was that uncomplicated. After that blasted, ill-conceived kiss in the garden years ago, she’d never taken kindly to him, had barely tolerated his presence. Not that he blamed her. During the intervening years, his behavior had been less than exemplary. “I have considered it from every angle.”
Balling his hands into fists, Ashe scowled. “I can see nothing but disaster on the horizon if you follow this course.”
“Disaster on the horizon I can deal with when it arrives. My concern presently is avoiding disasterbeforethe babe arrives. I know it won’t be easy—the past ten days have been horrendous, trying to behave around her as Albert would, and I know I’ve not managed completely because she studies me as though I’m a puzzle with a piece that doesn’t quite fit. So far, I believe, Julia has kindly chalked my odd behavior and requests for solitude up to my grief. Yet I know I can’t use that excuse much longer, so I need to know what gave me away. How did you deduce it was me and not Albert wandering around today?”
